I have an exhaust leak right where my turbo meets up with the manifold. It’s blowing black particles onto my oil filter. I haven’t been able to see if it’s a cracked manifold or simply a bad gasket. It just started making noise on Friday and it’s really not that loud yet. My question is what kind of permanent damage can result from a leak like this? I’m not brave enough to start fiddling around with broken studs etc. I plan to have it professionally done, just can’t afford right now. How much time do I have?
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'85 760 5-speed manual 214K

Have you checked the manifold nuts? One could just be loose.

After some minor burns during my investigation last night, I found it to be the 3 bolt connection on the back of my turbo to the exhaust pipe. Seems the top bolt is broken. Last week I was doing my normal warp 10 down the highway and heard a "pop". I'm pretty sure what I heard was this bolt snapping. It's still in place but I can see the flange is pulling away from the turbo. This explains why the noise is getting progressively louder.
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'85 760 5-speed manual 214K

Because of the expansion/contraction of the manifold heating/cooling and the turbo. There is no gasket between the manifold and where the turbo mounts. Sounds more like a exhaust manifold gasket. You can stick a shop vacuum in the blow mode to your tailpipe and blow into the exhaust and see if any air escaping near the manifold.

I have to agree with aleekat on that one. As far as damage goes it would be possible to give the O2 sensor a false reading due to the wrong oxygen content in the exhaust and have the mix be too rich or too lean. I have seen other makes of cars burn up cylinders this way but I have not seen it on any Volvos. One thing that we used to see on the 240 turbos that did this was a lot of broken exhaust studs. The studs were in place and not broken but they would snap off like a glass rod when you twisted them. The theory that I have heard put forth is that they were cooked by the exhaust gasses and much like heat treating something it made them hard and brittle. I would get it fixed at your first possible convenience and expect to pay around 3-4 hours labor plus parts and if there are broken studs the price will go up from there.

Mark

It looks like this one is going to get expensive. I guess paying a pro to do it would be a lot cheaper than me trying, failing, and getting it towed.

Thanks for your replies,
nocluetim
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'85 760 5-speed manual 214K